● Special Features: Formation of Safe and Comfortable Urban AreasUrban Environment Regeneration
YOSHIKAWA Katsuhide
Director of the Environment Department
YASUDA Yoshiya (Head), TANAKA Shinji (Researcher)River Environment Division, Environment Department

1. Introduction

The development is pursuing various working techniques immediately useful to urban environment regeneration by conducting two studies. One of them has a mission
to develop the method for taking advantage of the local characteristics in town planning. The other aims at developing
the method for using the remaining spaces of the urban areaeffectively, focusing on waterside spaces which are about
10% of the urban area in total. When public spaces of road
spaces, parks, and green zones is included, they amounts toabout 33%.
(2) Study on the method for urban planning in accord withnature
In this study, the following two points are evaluated inseeking for ideal urban areas.
・How the urban planning reflects considerations of thenatural environment
・What type of index is used and what type of evaluation
method is performed(3) Study on urban regeneration scenarios
The objective of this study is to provide policy scenarios
for reaching urban regeneration in accord with nature. To
attain this objective, an attempt is being made to gain an
insight into urban areas by following a comprehensive
approach including historical and cultural aspects, providing
the urban planners with a scheme of an ideal city in thisstudy. In addition, we are conducting a survey on theprocess, procedure, and others required to build these cities
from the standpoint of human social science.

The environment that people can rely on and enjoy issustained to a great extent by sound hydrological & material cycles and ecological systems in a watershed. Particularly
in urban areas, however, such natural foundation of thewatershed was collapsed by the overburden of population
concentration and rapid economic growth, which led tobreaking people’s close tie to the above cycles and systems(Figure 1 shows an example) and to deteriorating urban living and natural environment. This situation gives rise to theurgent need for conservation and restoration of the entire
watershed having urban areas, so that urban people canrecover the lost tie.

Inokashira Pond

Myoushouji RiverKanda River

Sumida River

Zenpukuji River
Nihonbashi River
Shibuya River

Meguro River

Figure 1

Extinct rivers in Tokyo1)

3. Research results

From this standpoint, NILIM launches the research project: Watershed/Urban Regeneration in Accord with Nature,aiming at the watershed restoration in terms of hydrological& material cycles and eco-systems for recovering soundurban environment. In this project, the study on consensus
building and decision-making processes using
cultural/social analysis & evaluation systems is emphasized
as well as the study for grasping the actual environment,conserving forests and agricultural fields, andreserving/recovering the ecological network.
This paper provides the overview of our project, focusing
on urban environment regeneration.

Under the framework, NILIM obtained the following
results by FY 2001.
(1) Study on the design method of facilities incorporating
local characteristics
Aiming at reflecting in creating the attractive town incorporating the local characteristics, we evaluated the town
planning cases that won the “Tezukuri Kyodo” Prize, prize
for creating an attractive hometown incorporating its local
characteristics through resident participatory approach. In
the evaluation, we reviewed the method for grasping thelocal characteristics, the planning and designing processes,
and the method for assessing the result of the urban
renewal project. The result of evaluation showed that:・the degree of consideration of local characteristics
depends on the reviewed terms,
・Participation of the residents and experts in the urban
planning in the project is important, and2. Framework of the project
The framework of the present project consists of threecomponents.
(1) Development of urban environment restoration technology
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● Special Features: Formation of Safe and Comfortable Urban Areas
ics, basin areas, and ecological system. In the final audienceparticipatory discussion, various opinions were exchanged
actively on the issues:
・how the residents and visitors should participate in thedecision making process,・allotment of the national budget to individual local
urban plans, and・roles of the experts in conducting the resident-participatory project.
In the symposium held in November, Prof, Shiro ISHII ofTokyo Univ., a former member of the Council for Scienceand Technology Policy (CSTP, Cabinet Office), spoke hislecture on the matters necessary for urban renewal from aviewpoint of the Japanese social structure. Prof. Peter Roweof Harvard Univ. and Prof. Tom Simons of Helsinki Univ.,
who spoke their key addresses, introduced and stated thecurrent urban planning and urban projects, giving the transformation of highways into the underground type and theurban renewal project in Boston and the cases of the urban
reorganization project in Helsinki as examples. In the workshop held in the afternoon, the students of Keio Univ. presented their urban renewal plan concerning the region
around Imperial Palace and the Kamakura area. In the panel
discussion about this representation, these issues weretreated from a wide range of standpoints focusing on utilization of local resources and creation of urban environment:
・comparison of urban areas between Japan and Europe,・relationship between the authorities concerned andthe residents, and・how to reserve green zones.

・only a few cases evaluated the result of the project sufficiently.
In the light of this result of review, we are making survey
on how to regenerate the urban areas using waterside
spaces around them in 2002.
(2) Study on the method for planning urban areas in harmony with the natural environment
We made a survey of the terms considered in planningand the objects for planning, the indexes for evaluating theobject-attaining performance, and the relationship with other
cities concerning urban environment planning methods of
20 cities throughout the countries. The terms, which weremost commonly evaluated, include the green zones and thepercentage of greening of the urban area. Other individual
indexes were also evaluated, though they were not considered comprehensively from a macro viewpoint. On the otherhand, some of them made a new attempt to evaluate theterms, which could not be measured quantitatively, forexample using aquatic organisms as indexes for evaluating
the water quality.
(3) Study on urban area regeneration scenarios (StudyGroup of “Urban Environment Regeneration”)
To renew the urban areas, the urban planning method
must be surveyed from the standpoints of a wide range offields such as architectonics, agronomics including greening, landscape designing including landscape and its cultural
background, and others. For this reason, “Study Group of“Urban Environment Regeneration” was formed as a backbone of the study in cooperation with Prof. Mikiko
ISHIKAWA (Keio Univ.) and Assistant Prof. Masami
KOBAYASI (Meiji Univ.). We continue conducting the survey with the Study Group. This Study Group plays a role ofthe forum where researchers exchange their opinions andinformation on urban environment renewal and has been
held once every 2-3 months since 2002.
In the Study Group, a wide range of issues is treated;
introduction, question and answer, and discussion about thecase studies and planning of open forums and symposiums
described later. This group makes surveys from various academic aspects at all the levels from small rivers such as valleys in hill areas to the entire Kanto District including greatrivers concerning watersheds and urban areas. The derivatives from the group will be published in the form of publication after being refined.

Figure 2

Scene of the international symposium(January 2003)

4. International symposium of urban regeneration
In addition to the activities of information sharing andexchange above mentioned, the Study Group held the opensymposium on urban regeneration two times, in June 2002
and January 2003 aiming at providing the people interested
in the issue of urban environment renewal with wide rangeof information.
At the symposium held in June, Prof. Carl Steinitz ofHarvard Univ. spoke his special lecture on the method forurban designing and planning from a standpoint of landscape giving examples in US. The experts from various
fields reported their own fields, urban planning, architecton-5. Conclusion
The issue of urban environmental regeneration, which
attracts great attention by so many people and has significant influent, is positioned at a higher rank. NILIM will
make a further survey on urban environment regeneration.

References1) Source: “Urban regeneration and Kanda River”,
ISHIKAWA Study Room, Keio Univ., 2002

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